Speaker and audio upgrades for 2023 DC

Weather is getting cold up here in the NorthEast. I missed the window to get my new door speakers installed. That may have to wait till spring.
I'm of the same desire, just make the listening environment more pleasing - I don't want to hurry myself to early hearing deficit.

Out of curiosity, what model underseat sub did you go with, and would you buy the same again?

 

My previous vehicle (Nissan Rogue) had the BOSE system and the sub was mounted in/to the spare tire in the back storage area. Sounded great. When I get around to doing the sound in my access cab I have every intention of doing a Rockford sub under the passenger seat.

 

I have the Cerwin Vega 10". At the time I bought it it had one of the higher RMS outputs available in a 3" tall box, and all the reviews were basically "surprisingly sounds much better than I expected." I think the one downside (and its not really a major downside) is that the low pass filter is 75-150 Hz, so the crossover needs to be set just a hair higher than what I normally like. I have also heard some sound folks talk about the Rockville, and it's basically the same thing of "sounds better than the price and brand indicates."

If I had to do it again, I would be tempted to buy the Rockville over the CV. It has a slightly better range of frequency response and a better filter. I have not heard it in person, but would be very interested to do a side by side comparo.





I talked about it some earlier in this thread, but I have also since changed a few things up. I got rid of the Kickers in the doors and went with a set of reasonably priced Focal components instead. They mate well with the 80Hz crossover.

 

I have a Sound Ordinance 8" powered subwoofer behind the right rear passenger seatback.
I put the

$80 DS18 Pro St OEM Subaru/Toyota Upgrade Bullet Compression Tweeters with Crossovers 1.9" - Car OEM Tweeter Upgrade Kit for Many Subaru/Toyota Models - Replacement for H631SFJ101 and H631SFJ100 (Pair)

DS18 Pro St tweeters in the dash. Infinity Reference 6x9 in the front doors and 6x5 in the rear.
I also have the Kicker Key 200.4 amp under the front passenger seat.
I started with the tweeters in the dash. It made a difference but it was still weak on power. Next, I put in the powered sub and it really improved the lows. Then I put the Infinity speakers in the doors. Much better clarity but still lacking any oomph.
So yesterday, I had the amp installed. WOW! I don't know what the 1k watt amps sound like but if you turn my volume up to 9, this baby is rockin'! It's only 200 watts, 50x4 channel. Made a huge difference. I haven't done the DSP programming on it yet so I'm hoping there's even better sound coming soon.

 

The auto-DSP makes that little amp worth its weight in gold. It made a noticeable difference for me, and its important if you are running coax speakers in the front doors. It will help at balancing out those high notes that tend to be over produced in most setups.

 

I know I'm late to the party, but I thought I'd chime in.
I went with DS-18 tweeters, which were a bit too bright at first. They overpowered everything else and required me to tone down the highs in the EQ. After that I put Kicker CSCs in the doors and, like everyone has mentioned, they sounded better but didn't really solve the problem. The signal to the rears is so low that the upgrade is basically pointless without an amp.
As for the amp, I went with Apline

$220 KTA450 Alpine KTA-450 4-Channel Power Pack Amplifier with Dynamic Peak Power 45W RMS x 4, at 2 Or 4 Ohms

KTA450 installed in-dash behind the HU. I'd have liked to have found a Kicker Key, but those things are getting really hard to find these days. The Apline amp is fully tunable, so I was able to bring the rear channels up to fill-out the sound in the cab without disturbing the balance.
Now, as others have said, all of this is pointless without first sound deadening the cab. There are a lot of ideas about what to use, how much coverage is needed, etc. but suffice it to say, anything that reduces vibrations in the panels will improve your sound quality. I did the doors and back wall with butyl sound deadening and closed cell foam. This made a noticeable difference. I will probably go back and add mass loaded vinyl to the rear wall to reduce road noise a little more.
The last thing I still need to do is add a sub to round out the low end, but I'm still weighing my options.

 

I am using Rockford Fosgate all around with a SKAR audio box box made for the double cab goes behind rear passenger seat and sounds great. My problem is lost my microphone and backup camera

 

Looking to get this box but what made you lose those? Part of the harness? Or head unit?